THE BIBLE CODES
Every major event in world history, every major figure in world history appears to be encoded in the Bible.
--Michael Drosnin, author--The Bible Codes (1997)
What are the Bible Codes?
Throughout history, spies have used the techniques of hiding encoded words in documents or letters to send secret messages. For example, an American spy working in a British fort during the Revolutionary War might have written an innocent-sounding letter to his mother in which he chatted about his health, the weather, et cetera. However, when his commander intercepted the letter, he would circle every twelfth letter to read the real, secret message: "400 soldiers and 22 cannons."
In a similar manner as the spy's code, the Bible Codes are meaningful words encoded in the Bible in a pattern that code researchers call "equidistant letter sequence" (ELS). The hidden word or phrase is discovered by skipping equal numbers of letters (e.g., every 7th letter).
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Although there is evidence that some Jewish rabbis knew of the existence of Bible Codes in the past, the development of high-speed computers provided the first opportunity to systematically search the Scriptures to discover how prevalent and extensive the phenomenon of Bible Codes actually is. Almost thirteen years ago a group of Israeli researchers including Dr. Eliyahu Rips developed a computer search program that can search the Hebrew text of the Bible. Initially, they found meaningfully encoded words that were thematically linked, such as "nail" and "hammer." These word pairs were located in closer proximity to each other than random chance would suggest possible.
As the researchers continued to study this phenomenon, they discovered that many of the ELS encoded words they found related to events and personalities from ancient times to this present generation. Moreover, these encoded words were interlaced in intricate patterns in the text at evenly spaced intervals, reading both forward and backward. The scientists realized that these ELS encoded letters formed words and associations of such complexity and intricate design that it was impossible that the letter patterns could have occurred by random chance.
In particular, Dr. Rips discovered key words encoded repeatedly in a specific biblical passage about the same subject as the encoded words. The word "Eden," for example, is encoded sixteen times within the relatively short passage of Genesis 2:4-10, the account of God creating man and placing him in Eden. Statistical probability would expect to find only five accidental ELS occurrences of "Eden" in a passage of this length. The odds of sixteen "Eden's" occurring by random chance in such a short passage were calculated by Daniel Michaelson, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Hebrew University of California (UCLA), as being 1 chance in 10,000.
Dr. Michaelson also reported an interesting code pattern dealing with God's creation of vegetation in Genesis 2. Twenty-five different Hebrew names of trees are encoded within the text of this one chapter. The laws of probability indicate that the odds against this occurring by chance are 100,000 to 1.
...
Thousands of detailed encoded patterns such as these have been discovered in the Hebrew text of the ancient Scriptures. After exhaustive statistical analysis, mathematics and computer experts conclude that these patterns of encoded words could not have occurred by chance, nor could an author purposely have produced this phenomenon. Many of the researchers have concluded that only a divine intelligence could have directed Moses to record this precise text of Scripture thousands of years ago.
The Mysterious Bible Codes by Grant R. Jeffrey (1998)
In a similar manner as the spy's code, the Bible Codes are meaningful words encoded in the Bible in a pattern that code researchers call "equidistant letter sequence" (ELS). The hidden word or phrase is discovered by skipping equal numbers of letters (e.g., every 7th letter).
...
Although there is evidence that some Jewish rabbis knew of the existence of Bible Codes in the past, the development of high-speed computers provided the first opportunity to systematically search the Scriptures to discover how prevalent and extensive the phenomenon of Bible Codes actually is. Almost thirteen years ago a group of Israeli researchers including Dr. Eliyahu Rips developed a computer search program that can search the Hebrew text of the Bible. Initially, they found meaningfully encoded words that were thematically linked, such as "nail" and "hammer." These word pairs were located in closer proximity to each other than random chance would suggest possible.
As the researchers continued to study this phenomenon, they discovered that many of the ELS encoded words they found related to events and personalities from ancient times to this present generation. Moreover, these encoded words were interlaced in intricate patterns in the text at evenly spaced intervals, reading both forward and backward. The scientists realized that these ELS encoded letters formed words and associations of such complexity and intricate design that it was impossible that the letter patterns could have occurred by random chance.
In particular, Dr. Rips discovered key words encoded repeatedly in a specific biblical passage about the same subject as the encoded words. The word "Eden," for example, is encoded sixteen times within the relatively short passage of Genesis 2:4-10, the account of God creating man and placing him in Eden. Statistical probability would expect to find only five accidental ELS occurrences of "Eden" in a passage of this length. The odds of sixteen "Eden's" occurring by random chance in such a short passage were calculated by Daniel Michaelson, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Hebrew University of California (UCLA), as being 1 chance in 10,000.
Dr. Michaelson also reported an interesting code pattern dealing with God's creation of vegetation in Genesis 2. Twenty-five different Hebrew names of trees are encoded within the text of this one chapter. The laws of probability indicate that the odds against this occurring by chance are 100,000 to 1.
...
Thousands of detailed encoded patterns such as these have been discovered in the Hebrew text of the ancient Scriptures. After exhaustive statistical analysis, mathematics and computer experts conclude that these patterns of encoded words could not have occurred by chance, nor could an author purposely have produced this phenomenon. Many of the researchers have concluded that only a divine intelligence could have directed Moses to record this precise text of Scripture thousands of years ago.
The Mysterious Bible Codes by Grant R. Jeffrey (1998)